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Tag: Shashidhar Sinha

  • Asci names N. S. Rajan as new chairman

    Asci names N. S. Rajan as new chairman

    Mumbai: August One Partners director N. S. Rajan was unanimously elected as chairman of the board of governors of the Advertising Standards Council of India (Asci) on Thursday. The decision was taken at the board meeting following the 36th annual general meeting of the industry’s self-regulator.

    N. S. Rajan is a public relations (PR) veteran with a demonstrated history of setting up and managing firms in the PR industry. He was previously the founder and managing director of Ketchum Sampark, an Omnicom Group.

    Marico managing director & CEO Saugata Gupta was elected vice-chairman, while Shashidhar Sinha, chief executive officer at IPG Mediabrands India, was appointed honorary treasurer.

    Subhash Kamath, the outgoing chairman, will now be a part of the consultative committee of the board, which, among other activities, mentors the new initiatives of the organisation.

    Lintas India Group CEO Virat Tandon and GMS India (Meta) director Arun Srinivas were newly inducted onto the board at the same meeting.

    Talking about his new role as the Asci chairman, N. S. Rajan said, “It is indeed a privilege to take up the role of Asci chairman. Our thought leadership initiatives, industry reports, and Asci academy are important pillars of taking Asci ahead into the future. I am looking forward to advancing the agenda of the Council to rapidly increase Asci awareness among consumers so that they engage more readily and in greater numbers, voicing their concerns, anxieties, and questions about what they experience in the form of thousands of ads per day. That number, on average, in India is anywhere between 7,000-10,000 ads per day!”

    “I would also focus on Asci’s efforts more towards prevention, in addition to the robust corrective mechanisms we have built over the decades. This we would do by using the several initiatives already in play – whether advice, guidance, training, or self-regulation. The third pillar would be to keep ahead of the fast-expanding and fractionalising digital domain to ensure that responsible advertising principles are followed equally across all media and consumer engagements by advertising in every form. A lot has been done by Asci over the last several years, and I am committed to seeing that the momentum generated by all past efforts is kept alive or even pushed forward with greater speed,” he added.

    A key initiative announced at the AGM by the outgoing chairman, Subhash Kamath was the soon-to-be-launched Asci Academy. Asci Academy is set to move industry’s self-regulator in the direction of training and awareness creation, and deep engagement with various stakeholders in the prevention of objectionable ads. This underlines Asci’s move to create impact at the point of creation, and not merely the point of publication. A more detailed agenda for Asci Academy will be unveiled over the next few weeks and months.

    Speaking about his two-term tenure as Asci chairman, Subhash Kamath said, “The past two years have been truly transformational for Asci. Our vision of making Asci more future-ready by taking on the challenges of a digital world and a fast-changing communication landscape, and by adding value to the industry through more agility, responsiveness, services, and thought leadership, has started showing results. I’m sure Asci will continue to grow from strength to strength in the coming years. It’s been a privilege to serve as its chairman and I thank the board, the CCC members and the wonderful secretariat team for making it possible.”

  • Subhash Kamath elected as ASCI chairman

    Subhash Kamath elected as ASCI chairman

    NEW DELHI: BBH & Publicis Worldwide India Chief Executive Officer Subhash Kamath has been elected chairman of the board of governors of the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI). The vote was held at the board meeting that followed the thirty-fourth annual general meeting this afternoon. Kamath is an industry veteran, having spent more than 32 years building brands across various sectors. 

    Ketchum Sampark P. Ltd MD NS Rajan, was elected the vice-chairman, and IPG Mediabrands India P. Ltd CEO  Shashidhar Sinha was reappointed as an honorary treasurer at the same meeting. 

    The Board of Governors includes Abanti Sankaranarayanan, co-chairman & Board Member, ISWAI;  D Shivakumar group executive president, Aditya Birla Management Corporation P. Ltd; Girish Agarwal, director, Dainik Bhaskar Group; Harish Bhat, Director, Tata Consumer Products Ltd; KV Sridhar, chief creative officer (Global), Nihilent Ltd; Madhusudan Gopalan, CEO, Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Hbealth Care Ltd; Rohit Gupta, president – network sales & international business, Sony Pictures Networks India P. Ltd; Prof SK Palekar, Centre For Developmental Education, IFIM Business School; Priya Nair, executive director Beauty, and  Personal Care, Hindustan Unilever Ltd; Prasun Basu, president – south Asia, Nielsen (India) P. Ltd; Sivakumar Sundaram, president revenue, Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd; Umesh Shrikhande, CEO, Taproot India Comm. P. Ltd. 

    Incoming chairman, Subhash Kamath said: “It’s a genuine privilege to accept this role as chairman of ASCI. Having served ten years on the board, I have had the honour of working and learning from very senior and experienced leaders of the industry. More importantly, I have learned the immense value of self-regulation and the far-reaching impact of the work ASCI has done over the years. Our industry today is at a crucial stage. With the digital revolution influencing brand messaging and engagement with consumers, advertising is evolving rapidly. And with the recent formation of the Central Consumer Protection Authority constituted by the government, self-regulation will be even more crucial in promoting consumer confidence and trust. As I have always said, with great creative power, comes great responsibility. So I look forward to working closely with the ASCI team to continue the good work set up by my predecessors and to introduce some newer, more future-facing initiatives as well.”

    Recalling his year-long tenure at ASCI, outgoing chairman Rohit Gupta, said: “I thank all my colleagues, ASCI members and everyone who was part of this incredible journey. I am glad I was given an opportunity to drive the body that spearheaded important changes in the advertising industry. This year has been the most eventful for ASCI as we tackled several challenges. The pandemic saw many misleading ads, which were dealt with immediately. The Ministry of AYUSH reached out for help in flagging misleading advertisements regarding prevention and treatment of COVID-19.  We also signed up with TAM to monitor 3,000 digital portals for misleading claims. We successfully met the three objectives we had set: increasing our consumer base, monitoring the digital space, and working closely with government bodies. I wish Kamath and the board the very best.” 

    Over the past year, ASCI’s independent Consumer Complaints Council met 45 times and deliberated on complaints pertaining to 3,773 advertisements.

    ●      Complaints were upheld against 2,126 advertisements (versus 1,486 in 2018-19) while those against 298 were not Upheld as the advertisements in question were not considered to be in contravention of ASCI’s codes

    ●      192 advertisements were found to be prima facie in violation of The Drugs and Magic Remedies (DMR) Act or The Drugs and Cosmetics Rules (Schedule J). These were promptly escalated to the Ministry of AYUSH or the Ministry of Health for their immediate attention

    ●      In several cases, state AYUSH officials, the FDA or the Central Council for Indian Medicine issued show-cause notices to the advertisers.

    It concluded with a touching tribute to Brahm Vasudeva, the non-executive chairman of Hawkins Cookers and the first chairman of ASCI, who passed away in July. His commitment to self-regulation in advertising and to the ASCI cause was recalled fondly.

  • ASCI appoints Benoy Roychowdhury as new chairman

    ASCI appoints Benoy Roychowdhury as new chairman

    MUMBAI: The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has appointed HT Media executive director Benoy Roychowdhury as its new chairman. As a member of the Board of Governors for four years, he has represented print media and provided active support to self-regulation.

     

    R.K. Swamy BBDO chairman and MD Srinivasan K. Swamy was elected as vice chairman and Media Brands CEO Shashidhar Sinha, was re-appointed the honorary treasurer.

     

    ASCI outgoing chairman Narendra Ambwani said, “It has been quite an eventful year for ASCI. We had set four key priorities for the year i.e. Collaboration with the regulators, easier consumer access to ASCI services, inculcate self-discipline among creators of advertising and be seen as fair adjudicator by all stakeholders. Not only were we able to deliver on all four priorities; but we also received recognition for all the good work ASCI has been doing. The Department of Consumer Affair (DCA) engaged ASCI as their “Executive Arm” to curb misleading advertisements and has entrusted ASCI to process complaints received on DCA’s portal “Grievances Against Misleading Advertisements (gama.gov.in).”

     

    Roychowdhury added, “There has been a remarkable transition in the last couple of years of how newer sectors like e-commerce and media such as digital advertising have changed the game. Over 90 per cent of consumers send in their complaints to ASCI online or via e: mail versus letters or phone calls. ASCI has also evolved to match the pace by significantly improving the efficiency and speed in ASCI’s consumer redressal process. These continuous efforts are now being backed by regulatory agencies such as the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting as well as the DCA, and more and more Government organizations are approaching ASCI to seek help in adjudicating on various complaints related to advertisements. Responsibility for the success of self-regulation rests with every player – Advertisers should advertise with a conscience, media which carry the ads should be more responsible and regulators should back self-regulation by lending their support.”

     

    Speaking exclusively to Indiantelevision.com the new chairman said, “I would like to strengthen the four pillars that we stand tall on. Educate through our E-Learning initiative, enhance consumer interaction and our app will play a pivotal role in it. I am also looking at more collaborations.  We had great success as Ministry of Consumer Affairs recognised us last year and lastly we need to advertise our presence so that more people are aware about ASCI.”

     

    ASCI promotes self regulation philosophy and Roychowdhury thinks it’s healthy for the fraternity as the alternatives can be difficult. “The alternative to self regulation is government regulation which I think is not what the industry is looking towards. Responsible advertising is much better than courts and judicial processes,” he added. 

     

    Other members of the Board of Governors are CIABC vice president Abanti Sankanarayan, Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Healthcare managing director and chief executive Al Rajwani, Bennett Coleman and Co Ltd president Arunab Das Sharma, Pepsico India chairman & CEO D. Shivakumar, Eanadu director I Venkat, Agrotech Foods Ltd director Narendra Ambwani, Provacateur director Paritosh Joshi, Genesis Burson-Marsteller Asia Pacific & principal/founder, Burson-Marsteller vice chair Prema Sagar, Google India managing director Rajan Anandan, Hindustan Unilever executive director personal care Sameer Singh, S.P. Jain Institute management educationist SK Palekar, BBH Comms India managing partner Subhash Kamath and Grey Group chairman and managing director Sunil Lulla.

  • Narendra Ambwani is the new chairman of ASCI

    Narendra Ambwani is the new chairman of ASCI

    MUMBAI: At the board meeting of the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), Agro Tech Foods director Narendra Ambwani, was unanimously elected chairman of the board.

     

    As a member of the board of governors for seven years, he has provided active support to self-regulation in the advertising movement.

     

    Benoy Roy Chawdhuri, was elected vice-chairman while Shashidhar Sinha was appointed the honorary treasurer.

     

    The other members of the new board of governors are: Hemant Bakshi, Arvind Sharma, Dilip Cherian, SK Palekar, Jayant Singh, Subhash Kamath, Srinivasan Swamy, Rajan Anandan, Shantanu Khosla, Abanti Sankarnarayanan, I Venkat, Arunabh DasSharma and Partha Rakshit.

     

    During the year 2013-14, the Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) met 41 times and considered complaints against 1937 advertisements. Of these, complaints against 1520 advertisements were upheld, while 414 were not upheld and 3 were considered non-issues.  In more than 90 per cent of the cases, where a complaint against the advertisement was upheld, the advertisements have been voluntarily withdrawn or modified as per the CCC’s decisions.

     

    The outgoing chairman of ASCI Rakshit said, “Last year has been a very eventful and successful year for us. ASCI’s effective action towards reducing the complaint processing turnaround time to just 12 days has led ASCI to win the prestigious EASA Gold Award for Best Practices. There has also been more than 90 per cent compliance towards the advertisements wherein a complaint against an advertisement was ‘upheld’. These advertisements were either withdrawn or have been appropriately modified. In a noteworthy achievement, ASCI issued guidelines on skin lightening and fairness products which ensured that these advertisements do not depict people with dark skin as somehow inferior to those who are fairer. Also recently, government took notice of ASCI’s efforts to curb Teleshopping ads that violate ASCI code and ensured a strict compliance of the advertising code in the Cable Television Networks Act (CTN).”

     

    Ambwani said, “There has been tremendous change in ASCI’s approach towards advertising content and adherence to the ASCI’s guidelines by the advertisers. Earlier, we acted primarily on complaint received from the public or the industry body. In the coming year, we hope to promote ASCI’s guidelines more vigorously among advertisers and creative agencies, so that new ads meet ASCI’s standards at the creative stage itself. We also hope to collaborate strongly with the regulators and consumer groups to ensure fairness and responsibility in advertising”

  • ASCI appoints Partha Rakshit as the new chairman

    ASCI appoints Partha Rakshit as the new chairman

    MUMBAI: Partha Rakshit Associates’ proprietor Partha Rakshit was unanimously elected as the chairman at the board meeting of The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI).
    ASCI’s biggest task in the coming year is to more vigorously disseminate ASCI’s guidelines through training programs believes Partha Rakshit

    The incoming chairman, Partha Rakshit said, “The last couple of years have seen a sea change in ASCI’s approach to self regulating advertising content. Earlier, we acted primarily on complaint received by the public. In May 2012, ASCI setup NAMS, a system of monitoring all new TV and print ads released across India, where trained professionals screened each ad to assess whether it meets ASCI’s code on honest and ethical advertising. This pro-active step has enlarged ASCI’s role as a self regulatory body manifold. I believe ASCI’s biggest task in the coming year is to more vigorously disseminate ASCI’s guidelines through training programs to the advertisers and ad agencies who create the ads and to media who release them, so that the proportion of new ads that meet ASCI’s standards is high at the stage of release itself. ASCI will also liaise more closely with regulators to ensure that ads which do not comply with CCC’s upheld complaint decision are acted upon as per the law of the land”.

    The outgoing chairman of the association, Arvind Sharma said, “Last year has been a very eventful year for ASCI. The NAMS Initiative which has seen a fivefold increase in the Ads complained against (from 177 to 788) has won ASCI the prestigious EASA Silver Award for Best Practices. The CCC now meets every week and approx complaints against 200 Advertisements are deliberated upon every month. Set up of the Online Complaints and Monitoring Services (OCMS) in the new look ASCI website also has started getting complaints against ads coming in from consumers in large numbers. ASCI has also introduced Suspension Pending Investigation where an Advertiser is asked to suspend an Ad immediately pending investigation when that Ad appears to be in serious breach of the Code.’

    Agro Tech Foods director Narendra Ambwani was elected as the vice-chairman; and Mediabrands CEO Shashidhar Sinha was appointed the Honorary Treasurer.
    The other members of the new Board of Governors are: Hemant Bakshi (Hindustan Unilever), Shantanu Khosla (Procter & Gamble Hygiene & Health Care), Jayant Singh (Glaxo SmithKline Consumer Healthcare) from the advertisers, Rajan Anandan (Google India), Sunil Lulla (Times Television Network), Benoy Roychowdhury (HT Media), I. Venkat (Eenadu) from the media industry and the likes of Subhash Kamath (BBH Comms India), Arvind Sharma (Leo Burnett), Srinivasan Swamy (R.K. Swamy BBDO). Allied Professions: Dilip Cherian (Perfect Relations), S.K. Palekar (S.P. Jain Institute of Management), Abanti Sankaranarayanan (CIABC) from the advertising agencies.

    During the year 2012-13, the Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) met 24 times and considered 3007 complaints against 788 advertisements. Of these, complaints against 642 ads were upheld, while 144 were not upheld and 2 were considered non-issues. In 590 cases, the complaint upheld ads have been voluntarily withdrawn or modified as per the CCC’s decisions resulting in over 91% compliance rate.